Swedes are Europe’s second-keenest travellers

Europe’s tourism industry figures are up, despite the current economic turbulence. This is the main finding of the ITB World Travel Trends Report commissioned by ITB Berlin. Of Europe’s nationalities, Swedes are travelling 7% more in 2011, making them the second-biggest outbound growth market after the Swiss (9%). By contrast, Germans are taking only 1% more trips than they did last year. Overall, trips out of Europe have increased by 4% this year.Short-haul trips taken in or from Europe made up 90% of all trips. Due to the political revolutions in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, many tourists have avoided North Africa this year, which suffered losses of 15%. Travel to the Asia-Pacific region stagnated, too, due to a drop in trips to Japan following the Fukushima disaster. The winners were North and South America, which together registered a 6% increase in tourism.City breaks were among the most popular form of travel, rising by 10%, followed by round trips (8%), and beach holidays (6%). By contrast, trips to rural regions and ski holidays fell by 7% and 5%, respectively. Low-cost flights rose by 10%, while traditional air travel suffered a 4% drop. Travel bookings by smartphones have made no significant impact to date.TTG Mena[pictured: Lufthansa’s new Senator Lounge, Frankfurt]